Norfolk County Council to consult on further cuts

A further £125m of cuts coming to Norfolk County Council over the next four years

Norfolk County Council has to slash £125m over the next four years as Tory cuts start to bite, a string of proposals aimed at reducing services has been made.

The Tory administration says that ‘co-locating services’ such as libraries, children’s centres and day centres will help save the council money.

Cliff Jordan’s Tories also propose cutting half a million from subsidies and grants, further backoffice savings and more reductions on highways maintenance.

Labour councillors slammed the Tory leader and his administration for the lack of detail on his proposals.

The most controversial proposal is the halving of the children’s centre budgets, although the capacity to host them in other council buildings and the safeguarding issues that may arise as a result of such have been given seemingly little thought in what the administration is presenting to ratepayers.

As yet the council has not said which children’s centres are at risk of closure or relocation and what if any reductions in capacity might have on the service.

Steve Morphew, leader of the opposition Labour group, said:

“If the cut is going to be £10m to £5m and there’s 53 at the moment, what’s the assumption on how many will be left?

I hear the management speak, but we don’t have the answers to questions we are going to get from families who say ‘what’s going to happen to services we currently get?’”

Labour councillors will be ‘loudly challenging’ for more details on the proposals, the consultation with the public will commence on Monday and we’ll be posting details here and encouraging people to have their say over the next few weeks.

"Yet again Tory administration hits our local communities with destructive cuts and hollow concerns. Nothing is safe in Conservative hands - from Children’s centres to police stations we are witnessing the systematic dismantling of our frontline provision.

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The money for new school building on the North Denes campus is assured – it is earmarked capital for that purpose already in the coffers. It couldn’t be used for other purposes – for funding day to day delivery of services.

Anne Wyer commented
2017-10-30 21:03:02 +0000

So where will they find £7million to build a new school on North Denes field?